Stories drift in from around the state; some are happy, and others are not. What about? Tuesday, most New Hampshire towns had local elections: town and school board elections, budgets, and many warrant articles. Turnout is king and when it comes to local election turnout typically sucks. But not always.
If you missed it Tuesday evening on Granite State Live, Terese Bastarche shared a story from her hometown of Loudon. A Typical deliberative session has a few hundred people, but with a little effort, she helped get 900 to show up – and they were not your typical town and school employees and their families.
Here’s the clip.
Hers was not the only message received.
In the town of Hookset, where there were 29 warrant articles for spending or appropriations, 26 failed. The three that passed were expenses using existing funds (all for the transfer/recycling center)—and none of the three raised new revenue or added new taxes.
In Bedford, we had mixed results. Residents voted for all-day kindergarten and gave the school whatever they wanted but rejected the municipal budget, a park and rec project, and a fire substation disbursement.
Meanwhile, in the notorious Timberlane Regional School District, four towns, one SAU, it appears that the budget writers like to pad the funding. The district requests more than needed, taxes more than needed, then finds itself with 10 million plus surpluses it then tries to keep.
Article 2 on the District Ballot approved a school budget lower than asked for, which passed on Tuesday, 3211 to 3049. They also passed a 2.5% tax cap on future school budgets, and an effort to retain excess funds from the previous budget failed. Timberlane will have to return that sum to taxpayers (not sure how that works, but it sounds good to me).
A lot of towns still suffered from low turnout which always results in higher taxes. Bedford got it all wrong, punishing the municipal side to pander to the school system – when schools are the biggest threat to road crews, cops and firefighter funding.
I hear Weare had a low turnout and did not fare well, and I suspect other towns had the same problem. However, Loudon and the four Timberlane towns have shown us the way. Property taxes are high everywhere because of school spending. Seventy percent or more of local property taxes are collected to fund school systems that waste millions on non-teaching staff. At the same time, student achievement (and, in many cases, enrollment) continues to decline.
Low property taxes result from low school spending, but you have to get that message out to people willing to vote for change and then get them to town meetings and the polls.
One more fun thing. The Timberlane Superintendent used the school’s robocall system to reach out to voters the night before the election. It was a mundane message until 1:10.
“No matter the outcome, Timberlane Staff is dedicated to open the school doors again on Wednesday Morning, the 12th, and to welcome all students, into those buildings…”
What the hell sort of shadow intimidation is that? You should exercise your right to vote, but we’ll still have school … if you don’t vote the way I’d like?
Very odd.
Residents have suggested this is electioneering. I’m not convinced of that, but it’s sneaky, weird, and completely unnecessary.
